25 July 2015

Birthdays
Mason Cook b. 2000 (Mockingbird Lane, Spy Kids: All the Time in the World in 4D)
Preston Bailey b. 2000 (Children of the Corn [2009])
Andrew Caldwell b. 1989 (Transformers)
Linsey Godfrey b. 1988 (Altergeist, Wizards of Waverly Place, Surface)
Michael Welch b. 1987 (Z Nation, Twilight, Grimm, Day of the Dead, Stargate SG-1, Birds of Prey, The Invisible Man, The X-Files, Star Trek: Insurrection)
Kevin Buttimer b. 1987 (Ant-Man)
Shantel VanSanten b. 1985 (The Messengers, The Flash, Something Wicked, Beauty and the Beast [2013])
James Lafferty b. 1985 (Oculus, S. Darko)
Jay R. Ferguson b. 1974 (No Ordinary Family, Surface)
Jason Marin b. 1974 (Back to the Future)
Aaron Craven b. 1974 (The Flash, The Age of Adaline, 100,000 Zombie Heads, Supernatural, Continuum, Fringe, Smallville, Alien Trespass, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Stargate: Atlantis, Kyle XY, The 4400, Stephen King’s Dead Zone)
Michael C. Williams b. 1973 (The Objective, Altered, The Blair Witch Project)
David Denman b. 1973 (After Earth, Angel, The X-Files)
Miriam Shor b. 1971 (Bedazzled)
D.B. Woodside b. 1969 (Buffy)
Matt LeBlanc b. 1967 (Lost in Space [1998])
Elke Jeinsen b. 1966 (Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger IV)
Illeana Douglas b. 1965 (Mega Shark vs. Kolossus, The Coven, The Adventures of Pluto Nash, Strange Frequency)
Iman b. 1955 (Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country)
Lynne Frederick b. 1954 died 27 April 1994 (Space: 1999, The Canterville Ghost, Phase IV, Vampire Circus, No Blade of Grass)
Nina Thomas b. 1952 (Doctor Who)
Janet Margolin b. 1943 died 17 December 1993 (Ghostbusters II, Planet Earth)
Pilar Seurat b. 1938 died 2 June 2001 (Star Trek, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea)
Todd Armstrong b. 1937 died 17 November 1992 (The Greatest American Hero, Jason and the Argonauts)
Paul Collins b. 1937 (The Breed, The Invisible Man [2000], Dead man on Campus, Deep Space Nine, Quantum Leap)
August Schellenberg b. 1936 died 15 August 2013 (SGU Stargate Universe, Mysterious Ways, So Weird, Friday’s Curse, Deadly Nightmares)
Barbara Harris b. 1935 (Nice Girls Don’t Explode)
Ken Swofford b. 1933 (Max Headroom, Knight Rider, The Incredible Hulk, Captain America II: Death Too Soon, Battlestar Galactica, The Six Million Dollar Man, The Girl with Something Extra, The Andromeda Strain, The Intruders, Shadow on the Land)
Al Adamson b. 1929 died 2 August 1995 (Death Dimension, Doctor Dracula, Dracula vs. Frankenstein, Brain of Blood, Horror of the Blood Monsters, Blood of Dracula’s Castle)
Jerry Paris b. 1925 died 31 March 1986 (director, The Munsters)
Estelle Getty b. 1923 died 22 July 2008 (Mannequin)
Woody Strode b. 1914 died 31 December 1994 (Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, Kingdom of the Spiders, Batman)
Jack Gilford b. 1908 died 2 June 1990 (Cocoon, Anna to the Infinite Power, Caveman)

Notes from the birthday list.
1. The Picture Slot, with extra "Wait... he's dead?" goodness. This is not a list weighed down with A-List stars. In previous years, I went full Whedonverse nerd with David Denman (the demon Skip from Angel) and D.B. Woodside, the hunky last principal of Sunnydale High on Buffy. This year, I go with Todd Armstrong, the star of Jason and the Argonauts, a movie I still love dearly. Starring in this movie did nothing for his career and he was upset that his voice was dubbed over after the fact. I don't blame him. I just found his name on imdb.com this year and I had not been cc:ed on the memo that he was dead.

This makes me sad.


2. Spot the Canadians! We have two Canucks today, both somewhat spottable. Most folks who benefit form the Canadian genre production boom are born after 1970, which is true of Aaron Craven, but we also see some of those credits on First Nations actor August Schellenberg, who died a couple years back.

3. My favorite actors on the list, or Welcome to Geezers Anonymous. Jack Gilford was a great comic actor, Woody Strode was probably the best known African-American actor in the Westerns. Strode worked with both John Ford and Sergio Leone, and that is plenty good enough for me.

Many happy returns to all the living on the list and to the dead, thanks for all the memories.

Movie released
Lucy released, 2014

The Weekly Soapbox: The End of Oil.

Instead of predictions on Saturday, because I am running low, instead I will write a little opinion piece on things that have have been predicted. The End of Oil has only shown up a few times on the blog, once from OMNI Future Almanac, once from Utopia 1976 and John Elfreth Watkins foresaw the end of coal. All the dates have come and gone - 2010, 1976 and 2000 - and we still have petroleum based fuel running the world.

OMNI Future Almanac's call wasn't a surprise. It was published in 1982 and Peak Oil was already an idea people were batting about. Utopia 1976 was written in 1955 and Watkins made his predictions in 1900, so they are more surprising. Why hasn't the sky fallen yet?

I found many graphs similar to the one shown here that credit "natural gas liquids" and "unconventional oil" as the main stop-gap, and both of those rely heavily on fracking.

You might assume from my generally leftist leanings that I will now say "Boo! Fracking!", but I honestly haven't made up my mind. I know there are bad things that have happened at fracking sites, but I don't know how common they are. I'd like to find a neutral site where I could find good data, but I haven't found that yet.

This is the real world. There are always trade-offs. It's important to understand what they are. 

I could just see who is lined up on both sides and decide to go with the folks I like, but I got suckered into the anti-vax point of view by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on The Daily Show last decade, so I no longer think that is good enough.

The pro-fracking types think of themselves as The Sensible People - and yes, I'm looking at you Joe Nocera - but they are keen on writing "if there is environmental damage, the companies should be made to clean it up."

Yes, they should. Also, people should not cheat on their spouses or taxes, shouldn't litter or have their phones on at the movies or the theatre.

But people do those things. And what's worse, polluting companies pay a shitload of money to lawyers to make sure they don't have to clean up their messes.

There are things getting better in the world, usually slowly, but there are also things getting slowly worse. If the people getting screwed finally realize they can afford pitchforks and torches, I will likely sympathize with their cause. The Sensible People will likely complain of their burns or their pitchfork wounds and I will listen politely, but then I will say "Perhaps this is a good time to look at what both sides have done wrong."

Okay, I'm off the soapbox for a week.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

The first slow Sunday, with only a birthday list. In previous years, the 26th of July Picture Slot has belonged to fabulous babes. Will the streak continue?

Signs point to yes.
  
Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!